Studio Ghibli's Isao Takahata on animating his final film

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Isao Takahata is one of the most important and influential animators in the history of the medium. With a career spanning six decades, he has helped shape Japan's domestic animation industry and inspired audiences worldwide. A co-founder of the legendary Studio Ghibli, Takahata has directed films such as Grave of the Fireflies, proving that "cartoons" can be every bit as powerful as live action cinema.

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With his final movie The Tale of the Princess Kaguya -- a beautiful adaptation of a thousand-year old Japanese fairy tale, where a bamboo cutter raises a mysterious girl he finds in a tree -- about to open in UK cinemas, WIRED.co.uk had the pleasure of speaking with Takahata on his earliest work in the anime industry, his evolving artistic influences, and Studio Ghibli's legacy.

WIRED.co.uk: You began your career at Toei, producing television animation. Did you expect at the time that Japanese anime would grow to have the global appeal it now does?

Isao Takahata: No, I had no idea. Toei Animation was established with the thought that, unlike live-action [Japanese] films, feature animation films had international appeal and should be able to do business abroad. Despite this, those involved in animation work in Japan were making films thinking only about those close to them or their children. Even after they started making TV animation, I think they hardly ever thought about the outside world or overseas markets. In my own case, while I had a strong interest in European, American, and the world's diverse cultures, in fact I have not once made a film hoping that it would be seen abroad. This is true as well for The Tale of the Princess Kaguya. Of course, I am very happy that people abroad are able to see the film and that it is well-received!

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Do you feel the Japanese animation industry has fundamentally changed since you started out?

Japan's TV animation started with Osamu Tezuka's Astro Boy with a shockingly low budget. That situation hasn't changed, and continues to this day. Even after Japanese animation started being broadcast and screened around the world, those who work in animation have always been poor compared to those in Europe and America, and the production periods are short. In Japan, budgets are structured to recoup expenses in the domestic market. Studio Ghibli films that have gradually commanded higher budgets hold an exceptional position in Japan.

Between My Neighbours the Yamadas in 1999 and The Tale of the Princess Kaguya, you were involved with Kihachirō Kawamoto's Winter Days anthology. It's probably your least known work in the west, so could you discuss how you became involved on the project?

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Winter Days is a collection of collaborative linked poems hosted by Bashō Matsuo, the renowned seventeenth century haiku poet.

Creating renku, collaborative linked poems, is a highly cultured amusement in which several people take turns composing extemporaneous short, linked poems to jointly create a long poem. Humour was an essential aspect of this form of haiku, or the playful form known as haikai.

Kihachirō Kawamoto, to whom I owe much, came up with the idea of creating a film of Winter Days by assigning each poem to a different animation director to realise this project. He asked me to participate in this effort. I thought this was a rash attempt, but I wanted to applaud Mr Kawamoto's foolhardiness as he knowingly took this on. I first cooperated with Mr Kawamoto in turning the old and difficult language of the linked verse collection into modern Japanese. This was distributed to the participating animation directors. While we were working on this, from the expectations I had and respect I felt for mutual friends of ours, the Russian Yuri Norstein and the Canadian Frédéric Back, I decided to take on one of Bashō's haiku. Unfortunately, Mr. Back was unable to participate as his schedule was too busy.

The result was a unique and interesting film. But, unless one understands the meaning of each poem, it might be hard to comprehend. I was especially impressed by Mr. Norstein's segment in which he showed such a Japanese poetic sentiment and humour, far beyond what Japanese people can express.

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Visually, The Tale of the Princess Kaguya is closer to Yamadas than your earlier movies. What appeals to you about this more impressionistic style?

It is interesting that you describe the style as impressionistic! I have been strongly influenced by Back's Crac! and The Man Who Planted Trees. His animation style can truly be called impressionistic.

In order to have people believe in a fantasy world and characters that no one has seen in reality, it may be best to present the space, objects, and characters in a three-dimensional manner. It is as if that world existed right there, in a trompe l'oeil fashion. The current American animation films utilise 3D CG to aim in that direction.

But I wonder about the representation of the world we know well, how to depict very ordinary daily landscapes, nature, and people. I have long thought that it is better to appeal to the viewers' memory and imagination but this was impossible to express through animation. The initial act of sketching has been the best method for carving onto people's minds and memories the true impression of objects and figures.

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Convinced that it was unnecessary to draw in scrupulous detail the everyday world that everyone knows, I used this style for My Neighbours the Yamadas. I thought that the gifted Hisaichi Ishii [creator of the manga Nono-chan, that Yamadas was based on] had captured a distinct reality of Japanese people in his graphic renditions, and I believe I made the characters move with greater reality than in the usual animation films.

How did you apply those techniques and styles to The Tale of the Princess Kaguya?

With [this film] I went further along this direction to have the audience vicariously experience the instant the artist rapidly sketched what was occurring in front of his eyes. I aimed to have the audience vividly imagine or recall the reality deep within the drawings, rather than thinking the drawings themselves were the real thing. This would allow the viewers to feel moved by the actions and emotions of joy and sorrow of the characters, and sense nature teeming with life, in a more evocative way than through a seemingly real painting.

For this effort to succeed, it was essential to have the collaboration of a brilliant animator and an artist with special talents. Without Osamu Tanabe, who created the character design, animation design, and layout, and Kazuo Oga, who created the artwork, "The Tale of The Princess Kaguya" could not have been made. This work is the crystallization of the efforts of these two and the entire staff who supported our vision.

Thematically, the film's observations of the joys of nature over materialism echoes your 1994 film, Pom Poko. Given Princess Kaguya's roots in ancient folklore, was that intentional?

Of course, the environmental theme was deliberate.

I have expressed this as a latent theme in other works as well. I agree wholeheartedly with the lyrics of What a Wonderful World that Louis Armstrong sings. Life in Japan was in tune with nature until the modern age. A sustainable system was in place for people to receive the fruits of nature while they worked to allow nature to survive in a viable way. All life on Earth is cyclical -- birth, growth, death, and revival -- as in the songs I wrote for the film. I consider this to be the basis for everything.

That is why I take on this theme over and over.

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Hayao Miyazaki and yourself are regarded as the heart of Studio Ghibli. Now you've both finished your final films, what are your feelings on Ghibli's legacy and reputation?

I'm not sure I can respond in any meaningful way.

What Hayao Miyazaki has built up is the greatest contribution. The existence of that thick trunk has allowed leaves to unfurl and flowers to bloom to become the fruitful tree that is Studio Ghibli.

The Tale of the Princess Kaguya opens in UK cinemas tomorrow, 20 March.